RTI reveals IIT Madras director appointed without PM’s approval

30 Jul, 2013

An application was filed with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking the details about the appointment of the incumbent Director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi.

The reply to the application, filed by a former IITian, reveals that the appointment of the director was not approved by the Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC). This is in violation of an Office Memorandum issued by DoPT in 2006 which mandated that all appointments of chief executives in central autonomous institutions would come under the purview of the ACC which will be headed by the Prime Minister. IIT-M is listed as a central autonomous institute under the Ministry of Human Resources Development. RTI also revealed that the appointment of Ramamurthi’s predecessor was also not approved by the ACC.

A CBI probe is already going on into all faculty appointments made at IIT Madras during 1995-2000 is going on as per the directions of the Madras High Court.